Parents, teachers anxious over exams

Parents, teachers anxious over exams

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The 25 appointed state high schools in the capital looked more
like kindergartens on Monday morning, as flocks of parents stood
at the gates, while their children sat a repeat national
examination.

In front of SMU 28 in Ragunan, South Jakarta, a group of
mothers shared their worries with each other, while the anxious
faces of several fathers betrayed their efforts to appear
indifferent.

More than 50 students from various high schools in the area,
along with more than 4,800 others from all over the city, sat for
the second time the Bahasa Indonesia test, which they failed in
late June.

At 10 a.m., as students exited the school complex one after
another, the group of people, who had been waiting for two hours,
hurried to hear news of the exam.

A father -- who had taken the day off work -- patted his son
on the shoulder in support as they walked to the car, while two
teachers from a private school bombarded their students with
questions.

"Are you sure it was all right? Was it difficult?" asked Hardi
of one of his 42 students who were repeating the exam. His
concern seemed greater than that of his students as they only
replied with nods.

Most of the students said the exam they had just finished was
easier than the one they failed. "Maybe the intensive drilling of
the last few weeks helped them," said Hardi.

"I am glad it's over and done with. I want to start working
soon," said Jody, one of Hardi's student who had to take time off
work as an administrative clerk to sit the exam.

Hardi's students, along with some 750,000 others nationwide,
are being given a second chance this week. The education ministry
has allocated Rp 50 billion to fund the second round of
examinations, after spending Rp 250 billion on the first one.

In Jakarta alone, 16.64 percent of the 122,154 students
registered to sit the exams failed the first time around. The
number of students failing doubled from 7 percent of 126,213
students last year.

In the repeats, students repeat exams for the subjects they
failed out of the four compulsory subjects: Bahasa Indonesian on
Monday (4,831 repeaters), English on Tuesday (11,391) and
mathematics, economics or another foreign language on Wednesday
(9,182).

"Today we are only seeing a few repeaters. But, tomorrow we
will see more than 400 students from this area alone," said exam
committee head Haryono, who oversaw 25 state and private high
schools in the area on Monday.

Haryono said two of his school's students were repeating the
exam. "One of them has already been accepted by the University of
Indonesia, but had to drop the application since she had not yet
repeated the test," he said.

Hosting the repeat national exams requires the school to
provide empty classrooms, which means days off for the students,
particularly on days when there are going to be a lot of exams.

"It is like a bonus for us to have an extra holiday," said
Yuni, a student at SMU 28.

A bonus for Yuni, maybe, but this next couple of days will be
stressful for the parents and teachers of students sitting the
exams for a second time.(003)